1. Field
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an ice maker and ice dispenser for a refrigerator.
2. Background
Refrigerators typically include a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment. The refrigerating compartment stores food such as vegetables and beverages at approximately 3° C.˜4° C., and the freezing compartment stores food items at temperatures below freezing. Recently, various functions have been added to refrigerators so that a user may use the refrigerator more conveniently. An ice maker and ice dispenser, which will be described, is one of the various functions.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a conventional ice maker for a refrigerator will be described. FIG. 1 is a front view illustrating a conventional refrigerator. FIG. 2 is a top view illustrating an upper portion of an ice bank of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view illustrating components provided within the ice bank of the refrigerator of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional refrigerator includes a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment, and doors are coupled to the fronts of the refrigerating and freezing compartments. A control panel (not shown) may be provided on an outer surface of one or both of the doors for allowing a user to select predetermined functions of the refrigerator.
An ice maker 10 is installed in the freezing compartment to make and discharge ice. An ice chute 2 is provided in the door 1, and is positioned at lower portion of the ice bank 20 when the door 1 is closed. A dispenser (not shown) is connected to a lower portion of the ice chute 2.
As shown in FIG. 1, an upper surface of the ice bank 20 is open so that is can receive ice, which drops from the ice maker 10. A lower surface of the ice bank 20 has an ice outlet formed therein. The ice outlet corresponds to the ice chute 2.
Also, as shown in FIG. 1, the ice bank 20 includes an ice transmission part, a motor 23, a crusher 30 and an ice discharger 40. The ice transmission part includes an auger 22 having some portion thereof formed in a spiral shape. An end of the auger 22 extends to the ice crusher 30 to form a shaft, and a helix 24 is mounted at an end of the auger 22. The helix 24 pushes ice toward the crusher 30.
A helix member 26 is provided in an entrance of the helix 24 to adjust ice drawn into the helix 24 as much as regularly needed. A ring 28 is connected to the opposite end of the auger 22. The ring 28 interfaces with an output shaft of the motor 23 to transmit the driving force of the motor 23 to the auger 22.
When the motor rotates, the ice transmission part rotates such that ice is moved into the helix 24 by the spiral portion of the auger 22. Hence, the ice is discharged to the dispenser or transmitted to the crusher 30. The crusher 30 for crushing ice includes a housing 31, fixed blades 32 and movable blades 33.
However, the ice maker of the conventional refrigerator according to the related art has following problems. First, since the auger of the ice transmission part is made of stainless steel, which has high strength and rigidity, forming the auger in a spiral shape can be difficult, which increases the manufacturing cost
In addition, because the ice transmission part includes various components such as the auger, the helix, the helix member and the ring, assembling all the components of an ice maker of the conventional refrigerator requires many process steps. This also increases the cost of production, and makes the assembly process slower.
Also, the conventional ice transmission part with the above-described configuration tends to have a poor capability to prevent ice from being stuck together within the ice bank. In other words, once ice cubes become stuck together, the auger is unlikely to break the cubes back apart.